Rose in a Storm
by Saint Miroku
Summary: After encountering a powerful monster, Makoto and Usagi find themselves involved in Spirit Realm business, and Makoto finds herself drawn to the striking green eyes of a handsome demon.


Usagi and Makoto walked through the empty streets, the afternoon sun high in the sky. They chatted idly with little care for their surroundings until they spotted the last thing they wanted to see, one of Queen Beryl's Youma, a lanky creature with long, slender limbs, blue skin, a set of tusks that curved upwards from it's mouth, and a long, shaggy purple mane atop it's head that was complemented only by a torn pair of brown leggings. In contrast to its unkempt appearance, the creature held in its claws, an ornate scepter which was topped with a large red gem that had inscriptions of thunder bolts and storms carved into its ruby surface. The monster was draining the energy from a crowd of people attempting to escape, and the two knew what they had to do.

In an instant, the two Sailor Senshi transformed to face the monster. Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter quickly separated in an attempt to catch the Youma in a two sided attack, with Usagi throwing her tiara while Makoto fired a wave of electricity. Unfortunately, the monster was far more agile than normal, as it quickly managed to avoid Jupiter's thunder before quickly managing to swipe the tiara away effortlessly. The beast then struck at the Sailor Senshi, swiping at the air with its scepter to produce a large wave of energy that knocked the brave soldiers over onto the cold concrete.

"Surely you can do better than that!" the monster taunted, raising the scepter up triumphantly.

Makoto looked to Usagi and said, "This thing seems like its a lot better at fighting than normal, you got any idea how to beat it?"

"I'm not sure, maybe we could..." Usagi was cut off in mid sentence as she saw a single rose fly between herself and the Youma, an all too familiar sight. "Tuxedo Ma- wait, you're not Tuxedo Mask."

As Makoto looked up to see the source of the rose, she saw two young men standing further down the road. One had his hair slicked back wearing a red jacket while the other had long flowing hair and seemed to be wearing some sort of yellow outfit made for battle that was long and flowing, yet still fit for a fight, and it reminded her of traditional Chinese attire. She was immediately drawn to red haired boy's bright green eyes, which immediately drew her in. The Youma's attention was immediately drawn to the two newcomers, who charged towards it before it rose its scepter in a panic and vanished in a flash of red light.

The two stopped in their tracks and the boy with the red jacket spoke, "Damn Kurama, did you really have to try and be cool and throw the rose like that? We could've gotten him right here and now."

"Trust me on this, he would've gotten away no matter what, but with that little display, he'll panic and get desperate, it'll keep him from figuring out the scepter," the red haired boy responded.

"Alright, but I'm not sure where you get these ideas."

"Call it animal instinct, I've done stuff like this in the before."

With those words the two moved forward to the Sailor Senshi and reached out to help them up.

"Are you two alright?" the boy with slicked back hair asked as Usagi grabbed his hand.

"Yeah, just a little winded. Who are you guys?" Usagi responded.

"I'm Yusuke, and this is my friend Kurama, we're here on special business from the Spirit Realm."

"Kurama..." Makoto said under her breath as she was helped up by the red haired demon.

"So who are you two?" Kurama said, seemingly oblivious to how nervous Makoto was now acting.

"We're Sailor Senshi, defenders of love and peace fighting against the evil Queen Beryl," Usagi replied triumphantly.

"Queen Beryl huh, I guess she must be the one Koenma told us about," Yusuke said.

"Koenma? Who's that, and what's all this about a Spirit Realm?" Makoto asked, somewhat coming to her senses.

With that, Yusuke and Kurama briefly explained that they were Spirit Detectives loyal to the Spirit Realm, the place where the dead go to rest and that the monster they had faced was in fact a demon from the Demon Realm who had stolen a powerful magic scepter from Koenma's vault that, while he didn't fully understand how to use yet, could do massive amounts of damage if harnessed correctly. They suspected that he knew the Spirit Realm was hunting him down, and as a result, his plan was to steal human energy and offer it to Queen Beryl of the Human Realm in return for protection.

"I didn't get half of that, but this guy's strong and he's with Beryl so we need to stop him!" Usagi said as the two Spirit Detectives concluded their briefing.

Yusuke laughed, "That's good enough for me."

"Honestly Usagi, you're so hopeless. But... if it's alright with you... I think it'd be a good idea if maybe Kurama and I could meet up later to try and... strategize." Makoto added, getting very nervous at the end.

"Alright, that sounds like a good idea to me, why don't you meet me at the park in about an hour, Yusuke and I need to go deal with something real quick," he replied with a smile.

"It's a plan!" she said, struggling to contain her excitement.

Kurama and Yusuke then walked away and as they left, Makoto could just barely make something along the lines of "you're a real lady killer, you know that Kurama?" from Yusuke before the two laughed.

She was so distracted by this that she barely noticed the sly chuckling from Usagi as she said, "Wow Makoto, you really wasted no time going after him."

"Shu-shut up, it's not like you're any different when it comes to Tuxedo Mask! Besides, how could I resist? His eyes, they look just like the eyes of the senior who broke my heart!" she replied.

"Oh here we go again, just what does this senior of yours look like anyway?"

At this point, Makoto was too distracted to properly respond and merely said, "Sorry, I can't stay here and talk, I've got to go get ready!"

"And she calls me hopeless..." Usagi said with a sigh as Makoto ran off.

After heading back to her apartment and freshening up a bit, Makoto headed down to the park, ready to meet up with the man who'd so suddenly stolen her heart. By the time she got there, the sun was starting to set, and she had to walk in a bit before she finally saw him standing alone, looking at a large tree.

"Sorry if I kept you waiting," she said, approaching his position.

"It's no problem, I just got here a little bit early is all," Kurama replied, a warm smile forming across his face. "So, what did you want to talk about."

"Oh well, I just wanted to kind of get to know you is all... purely to help deal with this thief guy of course!"

Kurama chuckled, "It's fine, truth be told, I wish I could get to know you a little bit better too." Makoto's heart skipped a beat with that line. "If you know about the Spirit Realm and everything, I guess I should tell you everything about myself and not leave anything out."

"Everything?" Makoto asked, confused.

Kurama began to explain his history, how he was once a Demon thief before being reincarnated and becoming a Spirit detective. Makoto in turn, told him about her time as a Sailor Senshi and soon, the two were starting to talk casually, quickly coming to love each others company. They were having such a good time, that they almost failed to notice the Demon up ahead of them, draining energy from some unfortunate passers by.

"Sorry to interrupt your date, but I'm going to take you down here and now Spirit Detective!" the Demon said, raising it's staff for another attack.

Makoto quickly transformed and the two jumped to avoid a wave of energy that was aimed right at them. Makoto charged an electrical blast while Kurama drew a rose from his outfit and transformed it into a long thorn covered whip. This time, Makoto's thunder hit the beast, but to no avail, Kurama quickly jumped forward, managing to land a blow on the fiend with incredible speed, but his strike likewise had no effect. The beast roared and smacked Kurama with it's free arm, knocking him back to Jupiter's position. Makoto rushed to help him, but the demon launched another attack using the scepter, sending both of them flying, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

"This thing's a lot tougher than it looks," Kurama said.

"How are we going to beat it?" Makoto asked.

"We're going to have to hit with as much force as possible in a small area, I have a plan, but it'll take good timing, are you ready?"

Makoto shook her head in acknowledgment and Kurama shared his plan. After the two confirmed it, they got up and approached the beast once again. Makoto charged another thunder attack as Kurama moved to attack once again.

"So unoriginal, you two are really going to have to try something different if you want to stop me," the demon said.

As Makoto fired another thunder blast, the monster say that she was not aiming for another attack, but instead, her attack channeled into Kurama's Rose Whip, causing it to become consumed by crackling electricity as he struck the beast's hide. This time, his whip cut into the demon effortlessly, leaving a massive gash from the creature's shoulder all the way down to it's stomach. The monster collapsed onto the ground as Kurama landed just behind it, desperately trying to hold onto it's precious scepter before it's body turned to a dark stone before crumbling to ash.

Kurama grabbed the scepter as he saw Yusuke rushing towards the two of them.

"See, I told you this would work out okay. The thing was so paranoid, it couldn't wait to attack," Kurama said, tossing the scepter to Yusuke.

"Alright, I guess I should have more faith in you," Yusuke replied, somewhat embarrassed that he couldn't be of more help. "Well at least let me take this thing back to Koenma, I've gotta do something to earn my pay after all."

Kurama chuckled, "You go ahead and do that, I'll even let you take all the credit."

Yusuke laughed before heading off with the scepter in hand.

"Well, I guess that's one way to end a walk in the park," Makoto said.

"It's how these things usually end for me," Kurama joked before continuing, "I should walk you home, it really is the least I can do."

"No that's totally not nece- actually, yes, I would love that," Makoto responded, realizing what a great opportunity this was.

The two headed back towards her apartment, and when they reached her front door, Kurama turned to face her.

"You know aside from having to fight a crazed demon, I really enjoyed spending tonight with you," Kurama said.

"I had a really good time too, would you like to do it again sometime?" Makoto asked.

"Of course, if you can put up with my crazy schedule that is."

"I can, you're not the only one who deals with stuff like this regularly."

"Well, I'll see you around then," Kurama said, beginning to walk off.

"Kurama wait," Makoto replied.

"What is-" Kurama began to say while turning back, only to find himself suddenly silenced by Makoto's lips being pressed hotly against his own. He quickly relaxed into the kiss, and began to embrace her, the two staying interlocked until they were inevitably forced to break for air.

"That was just something to make you miss me a little bit more," Makoto said playfully.

"Well, that's no good, we demons always have to repay our debts," Kurama replied, as he leaned forward and met her lips in another kiss. When they again separated, Kurama said, "I should be able to come back here tomorrow afternoon, will you wait for me?"

"Of course I will, I can't just let some demon fox walk off with my heart like that," she replied.

"Alright, it's a date," he responded with a smile before walking off, waving goodbye as he did so.

As Makoto waved back, she noticed a single rose left on the ground. She picked it up and as she looked at it, a warm feeling overtook her, a feeling that she hadn't felt sense that fateful day that her heart had been broken. This was the start of something exciting.


End file.
